The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) released the report of its NFV&MEC Plugtests event that took place remotely in June 2020. After several weeks of remote integration and pre-testing, the event offered NFV and MEC solution providers as well as open source communities an opportunity to discuss and solve interoperability challenges while validating their implementation of NFV and MEC specifications and APIs.

Over 40 organizations and more than 170 engineers were involved in the preparation of this important event forming an engaged and diverse community of implementers testing together the interoperability of over 65 NFV and MEC solutions. Test sessions covered a wide range of configurations and showed interoperability rates from 75% to 93%. Participating organizations were able to interact remotely through the ETSI HIVE (Hub for Interoperability and Validation at ETSI) which provides a secure framework to interconnect participants’ labs and implementations.
 

As part of the 60 years' anniversary celebrations, CEN and CENELEC have launched the project ‘Faces of standardization’: a series of monthly interviews to showcase the human aspect of standardization. In September 2020, CEN/CENELCE published an interview with Mr. Dinesh Chand Sharma, Director – Standards & Public Policy (SESEI).

Read the interview with Dinesh Chand Sharma (SESEI)

Discover the previous interviews in the series

Through the Green Deal, the European Commission has set a series of ambitious goals to transition towards a fully green economy and reach the global climate target of net zero by 2050. CEN and CENELEC, as two of the officially recognised European Standardization Organizations (ESOs), know that European Standards (ENs) have a key role to play in making the Green Deal reality. This role, acknowledged by the European Green Deal itself, is presented in the newly-published position paper “Standards in support of the European Green Deal Commitments”.

In particular, the paper presents some recommendations to European policy maker, in order to reap the greatest advantage from European standards:

• Make use of European and international standards to support the European Green Deal actions and initiatives;
• Establish clear overarching principles to guide policy making, that prioritise reduced emissions and reuse of materials, and clear links between the sustainability performance and incentives.
• Request technical standards for specifying the technical details for manufacturers and suppliers to meet legal requirements.
• Identify early on the type of standards needed to support the European Green Deal actions, which can be mapped against existing standards, and identify gaps which need to be addressed through new standard developments.
• Request the development of new standards, or the revision of existing ones, by the ESOs.
• Integrate standardization in European framework programmes aiming to implement the European Green Deal.

Download position paper>>

The European Commission presented its plan to reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. This level of ambition for the next decade will put the EU on a balanced pathway to reaching climate neutrality by 2050. The new target is based on a comprehensive Impact Assessment of the social, economic and environmental impacts. The Assessment demonstrates that this course of action is realistic and feasible. This raised ambition also underlines the EU's continued global leadership, ahead of the next UN climate conference (COP26).

The Commission has:

• tabled an amendment to the proposed European Climate Law, to include the 2030 emissions reduction target of at least 55% as a stepping stone to the 2050 climate neutrality goal;
• invited the Parliament and Council to confirm this 55% target as the EU's new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, and to submit this to the UNFCCC by the end of this year;
• set out the legislative proposals to be presented by June 2021 to implement the new target, including: revising and expanding the EU Emissions Trading System; adapting the Effort Sharing Regulation and the framework for land use emissions; reinforcing energy efficiency and renewable energy policies; and strengthening CO2 standards for road vehicles.

The transition towards a Circular Economy is widely considered as a necessary step to address the challenges related to the creation of a more sustainable economy. European Standards (ENs) are essential complementing tools that support the implementation of EU legislation, as well as the climate and energy targets, by promoting best practices, improving energy efficiency, safety and providing tools to optimize installations and systems.

In the field of Ecodesign (2009/125/EC) and Energy Labelling (2017/1369/EU), CEN and CENELEC produce European Standards that provide dedicated methods for measuring the energy performance of various energy-related products against the compulsory values and thresholds laid down in the Regulations adopted by the European Commission.

The eight standards were published over the course of 2019 and 2020 by  CEN-CENELEC Joint Technical Committee 10 on Energy-related products - Material Efficiency Aspects for Ecodesign (CEN-CLC/JTC 10), whose Secretariat is held by NEC, the Dutch Electrotechnical Committee. They are:

• EN 45552:2020 ‘General method for the assessment of the durability of energy-related products’;
• EN 45553:2020 ‘General method for the assessment of the ability to remanufacture energy-related products’;

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN), recently released the standard EN 16662-1:2020 ‘Road vehicles - Supplementary grip devices (SGD) for tyres of passenger cars and light duty vehicles - Part 1: General safety and performance requirements’.

For the first time, a European standard defines testing methods to ensure both operational and passenger safety and a minimum quality of performance on snow and ice for all devices, independent of their material and construction. It applies to all types of Supplementary grip devices (SGD - metallic, textile, hybrid), such as snow chains, snow socks or hybrid devices. Requirements of construction, wear, performance and comparison tests on snow and ice will allow the manufacturers to qualify their products and ensure operational safety and best quality to the end user. 

The risk of cybersecurity threats on computer-based equipment and programmable logic devices used in industrial installations is always topical. In particular, IT equipment has been widely implemented also in nuclear power plants (both existing and newly built ones) to perform operational and safety functions. Therefore, the protection of nuclear power plants against cybersecurity threats is of particular importance to ensure plant safety and operation.

The IEC Subcommittee 45A (IEC – TC 45/SC 45A) on ‘Instrumentation, control and electrical power systems of nuclear facilities’, which is mirrored  at European level by CLC/TC 45AX ‘Instrumentation, control and electrical power systems of nuclear facilities’, whose Secretariat is currently held by AFNOR, has been developing a cybersecurity standards framework. This framework is based on the ISO/IEC 27000 series and the security series of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

CEN (the European Committee for Standardization), CENELEC (the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) and the European Co-operation for Accreditation (EA) officially renewed their cooperation Agreement.

The cooperation between CEN, CENELEC and the EA is long-standing: a first Cooperation Agreement was signed in January 2009, and was renewed for the first time in February 2016. This new renewal, for additional three years, allows to ensure the strength, consistency and continuity of the standardization and accreditation system, to the benefit of the New Legislative Framework (NLF).

As part of the agreement, which ensures the links between the European standardization system and the European Quality Infrastructure, CEN, CENELEC and EA agree to regularly exchange relevant information on matters of common interest and participating in the relevant advisory and technical groups of the respective organizations.  For example, EA representatives actively participate in CEN and CENELEC activities, and in particular as a liaison partner to the Joint Technical Committee 1 on ‘Criteria for conformity assessment bodies’. In turn, CEN and CENELEC General Assemblies appointed Enda Mc Donnell, CEN Board Member and Director of Standards & Metrology National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), as CEN-CENELEC Representative to the European Accreditation Advisory Board (EAAB).